The King and I: Walter Lang

Walter Lang's The King and I has not aged well, and not just because of its cringe-worthy Orientalism, colonialist undertones, and yellow-faced actors (although they certainly don't help). There are several things about The King and I, the film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of the same name about an English schoolteacher who travels to Siam in the 1860s to tutor the children of King Mongkut, that seem dated. King Mongkut may have been the role Yul Brynner was born to play, but he doesn't deliver a cinematic performance in this film. Instead, he delivers a somewhat stilted stage performance. Listen how the pauses in between his lines seem to clunk with the weight of a stage actor waiting for his audience to react. My praises for Deborah Kerr as Anna Leonowens, the schoolteacher, are diluted by the fact that her singing was overdubbed in the final cut by a voice actress who was only paid $420 for the gig. The one aspect of The King and I that cannot be faulted is Leon Shamroy's magnificent cinematography. I wish that a print of its original CinemaScope 55 aspect ratio existed. But that is the only circumstance under which I would choose to revisit this film.

6/10